Richard Wilson

Our new Safer Neighbourhood Team sergeant Steve Whiting has hit the ground running with a series a consultation events planned across the ward this weekend. The team want to find out what local people think their policing priorities should be. They are encouraging residents to meet them at the following times and locations:

Saturday 7th January 2012

• 3.30pm Stationers Park, Mayfield Road
• 4pm Sunshine Café, Stroud Green Road
• 7.30pm Lancaster Road

Sunday 8th January 2012

• 10am Stationers Park, Mayfield Road
• 1pm Angel Café, Stroud Green Road

Tuesday 10th January 2012

• 12pm Charter Court, Stroud Green Road

I’ve already responded to their consultation suggesting the top three priorities should be: safety on the Parkland Walk; preventing burglaries; and safety around the W3 bus stops.  Although Stroud Green is generally a safe place, there have been some worrying incidents in recent months.  So this initiative is a welcome opportunity for residents to speak to the police about their concerns.

Residents living in roads around Stationers Park are jubilant after the Council’s waste contractor agreed to remove an ugly street-sweeping depot from the park at a public meeting this week.  This victory followed a 6 month campaign by local residents, supported by councillors, to get the Veolia depot’s 9ft metal fence removed or disguised.

As I posted back in May, the Council allowed Veolia to build the depot for its street-sweeping trolleys without consulting with local residents, councillors or the very active Friends of Stationers Park group.  Unsurprisingly, there was then an outcry when, without warning Veolia took over the park keeper’s shed and constructed a 9ft metal fence.  To try to meet resident’s concerns Veolia had arranged for a mural to be painted on the shed by local school children.  However, no solution to shortening or disguising the fence could be found that was acceptable to both the Friends and Veolia, and the contractor have now said they will completely remove the fence and depot and use alternative sites.

I’m absolutely delighted that local residents have stuck to their guns and said this large and ugly imposition on their park is unacceptable.  The Council should have realised that this was not an appropriate site, given how small the park is and how intrusive a 9ft metal fence would look, and should never have given permission.  I’m pleased that unlike Haringey Council, Veolia have decided to listen to residents and act on their concerns – great news!

The Friends of Stationers Park have organised  a public meeting with the Council’s new bin contractor Veolia, to discuss the ugly fenced depot they have been allowed to build in the middle of Stationers Park.  The meeting will be this Tuesday evening (15th) at 7.30pm in the Hornsey Vale Community Centre on Mayfield Road and is open to all members of the public.

The Friends have listed four concerns they want to present to Veolia:

1. erecting an imposing and aggressive fence in our green space to protect their litter trolleys.
2. the fact that they don’t pick up the plethora of litter in our park, adding insult to injury.
3. the fact that they haven’t paid a penny in rent to support the parks dept in all the months they have been there.
4. their staff are very noisy entering the park in the early hours of morning, disturbing residents of Mayfield and Denton roads.

I share resident’s concern about this ugly imposition on the Park.  I first posted about this issue back in May and have written about it in our local Focus leaflet.  Since then there has been work to improve the shed with a mural – but I hope that on Tuesday we can make progress on sorting out the rest of the mess.  My preference would be to get rid of the depot completely, but failing that it needs substantial work to make it fit in with our beautiful park.

There was a huge turnout yesterday for the grand medieval-themed opening of the new Stationers Park play area, organised by the Friends of Stationers Park.  It was clear that the kids absolutely loved the new ‘castle’ with its slides, fireman’s pole and rope ladder.  I had the privilege of helping local children to cut the ribbon to official open the fort.

Before cutting the ribbon, I took the opportunity to say a big thank you to the Friends of the Park, and particularly Kle Savidge, for the amazing work they have done to get this new play castle built.  It has taken a huge amount of imagination and determination to get the funds raised and the designs agreed.  Without the Friends giving up their time and energy I’ve no doubt that there would be no play are at all – as the old fort was at the end of it’s life.

Everyone loved the old play fort – but I think the new castle is going to inspire another generation of Stroud Green children to have a lot of fun.

The Friends of Stationers Park have organised an amazing medieval themed grand opening ceremony for the new play area, this Sunday (16th) from 2pm till 5pm.  There will be music, jugglers, crafts and entertainment – with a  medieval fancy dress parade, and prizes for the best costumes.  Drinks and nibbles will be provided by local Crouch End businesses.

I’m looking forward to joining in – and seeing the new play fort at the heart of the local community.   Getting the new play area built has been a huge battle, with a massive amount of hard work by the Friends to get the finance together – so everyone definitely deserves a party.

At Monday night’s Area Committee meeting in the Hornsey Library, I and the other local Lib Dem councillors agreed which community groups would benefit from small ‘Making the Difference’ grants to improve the local area.  This year we had some great bids in from Stroud Green residents – all of which got funded.

Projects that got the go-ahead in Stroud Green were:

• £3,500 for Mind to recruit and train volunteers to help out at their centre on Stappleton Hall Road (see cafe in picture).
• £500 for the Friends of the Parkland Walk to help clean up embankments and cuttings on the Walk.
• £2,500 for Farnefields Court Residents’ Association to create a community garden (with another £2,500 of match funding levered out of Homes for Haringey).
• £3,000 for Stroud Green Residents Association for new seats for people waiting for the W5, tree planting and other improvements.
• £3,000 for Friends of Stationers Park for new community picnic benches.
• £750 for the Friends of Stroud Green Library for a new noticeboard and signs.

Well done to all these organisations for putting in bids and working so hard to improve our area.

Last week I attended an ‘emergency’ meeting of the Friends of Stationers Park to discuss the state of the park, which has declined rapidly since Reg the park keeper retired.  High on residents’ list of concerns is the large metal fence that Veolia (the Council’s new waste contractor) have been allowed to erect round the old maintenance hut.   It is very ugly and visible across large parts of the park.  It seems to have been put up without any warning, consultation or planning permission.

The fenced of area is being used to store Veolia’s street-cleaning handcarts. However, Veolia’s contract does not involve cleaning the park – so residents have to put up with all these street cleaners coming in and out of park, but not actually doing any cleaning in the park.

People are understandably furious, and I’ve got in contact with the Director in charge of the waste contract at Haringey Council, to demand to know who gave Veolia permission to do this.  I’ve asked that a different site be found as soon as possible. I’ve also contacted the Planning Department and asked them to investigate.  I’m sure that a fence of this size must need planning permission – particularly as the facility has nothing to do with the maintenance of the park.

With regards to the upkeep of the park, the council officers at the meeting promised that once their staff re-organisation is complete the park wont be in such a bad state as it has been recently.  The cuts to the park’s department’s budget are disproportionate and I’ve opposed them at Council meetings, but realistically the Council’s budget decision will not be reversed any time soon.  The role of the Friend’s group is going to become even more important in encouraging volunteering and keeping on the Council’s back about problems.  They will need lots of support from residents to keep the Park from declining.  Please get in touch if you want to help out.